Skipper's challenge to Stevie May

Mackay has thrown down the gauntlet to star and challenged him to bow out with a Scottish Cup winners’ medal in his luggage

Stevie May is mobbed by his team mates after scoring his first goal in the semi-final

Dave Mackay suspects that the £1 million bid St Johnstone are anticipating for Stevie May will come in over the summer.

So he has thrown down the gauntlet to the home-grown star and challenged him to bow out with a Scottish Cup winners’ medal in his luggage.

While Peterborough, Rotherham and Preston circled earlier in the season, May had no intention of quitting McDiarmid.

But
with his match-winning brace against a notoriously mean Aberdeen defence thrusting him back into the spotlight and taking his tally to 25
for the season, Mackay suspects he is now too hot to hold onto.

“I
think the club realises that maybe they’ll have to cash in on him. When
you’re scoring goals like that, then you’re coming to everybody’s attention.

“So if the club get an offer that they think is reasonable, I have no doubt that he will
move on and that the club will wish him well. He’s done an incredible job this season for us, so nobody would begrudge him that move.

“Hopefully
he’ll score the Scottish Cup winner for the club and then move on with the best wishes of everybody. Let’s hope that happens.

“Stevie’s
had an incredible season. To be honest, at the start of the season you
would never had said that he’d play as well as he has. He’s scored goals at whatever level he’s played at.

“Coming
into the SFPL, you know he’s a goal scorer and he’ll score goals at any
level. But to come in and score the amount of goals that he has is fantastic.

“He’s been a huge
help for us this season in getting into the top six and he’s got his two semi-final goals. There was a lot of talk about how he hadn’t scored
against Aberdeen. We hadn’t scored against them this season and obviously their fans were singing about Stevie May. Yes, I heard that song a few times, but they certainly know who he is now.

“Stevie’s
like every good goal scorer. If you miss one chance, they forget about that and just make sure that the next time they get one they put it away. He’s like that.

“It doesn’t matter if he misses 10 chances, he’ll still keep coming back and
shooting from everywhere. He’s that type of boy. He’s got confidence about him. It’s not arrogance, it’s just confidence in his own ability.

“He’s certainly got a great shout for Young Player of the Year. There’s a lot of good young players in Scotland at the minute.

“I
imagine it will maybe be between Stevie and Andrew Robertson from Dundee United. He’s had an incredible season as well. He’s worked his way from Queen’s Park into the Scotland squad, so two outstanding players and I think it will be a toss up between those two.”